#52 - Death Note (Netflix) (Happy New Year)

Yes, I’m going here again, sue me, I warned you in the last rage review.

The Japanese adaptations of Death Note are probably the reviews that in retrospect, I regret being as harsh on. Not because I don’t stand by my criticisms, exactly. But I feel the producers had a losing battle, needing to tell a 3-act story in only 2 acts. Even then, the stories were heavily rushed and more should’ve trimmed to streamline the plot. It probably doesn’t help I had to watch the subbed versions as the dub wasn’t a DVD release. But whatever their faults, know this, at least they’re not this movie

Netflix is a hub for creative content (Voltron) and utter garbage (the Ridiculous 6) I’m going to try and review more stuff on Netflix next year, I mentioned before about doing a load of retrospectives. I’d say this ranks more in the middle, but this has received a wave of negative reactions from fans of the anime/manga and I figured I’d put my thoughts on the table. Happy New Year!

We open in Seattle with a bunch of establishing shots to a low beat pop song and we soon meet our main character, doing homework for people for money. We also see another character who will become important later. I don’t really get why this was necessary, we don’t even know their names yet.

The wind blows for plot convenience reasons and the Death Note drops out of the sky, our lead picks it up, the rain forces everyone inside but as he rushes in he’s spots the 90s still dying, aka the generic stock bullies. What’s strange he’s not the first to intervene, but when he does he uses incredibly p*ss poor logic and gets himself punched. A teacher finds him, along with the homework he’s been doing and he winds up in a mess of trouble whilst the bullies get off scot free. This might be the most realistic take on what’s it’s like being bullied since Power Rangers RPM (take that how you will)

OK, time for some backstory on our lead. Yes, I know he has a name but I’ve got a rant about it so I’ll save that for now. His mother was murdered (didn’t realise this was a Disney movie) and that’s really it. He’s given 2 weeks detention and an ice pack. He falls asleep in detention as the teacher conveniently leaves the room, they don’t even give a proper reason. Awakened, he uses the opportunity to take a peak at the Death Note, he skims through the first 2 rules. About that if you write the name of the person in the Death Note, they’ll die, if you have them pictured in your mind when writing the name.

A glass shatters and some marbles roll around the floor. This was necessary. He sees Ryuk, and decides to run for it and the room gets completely trashed, that’s another week’s detention coming his way. For that matter, why is Ryuk doing this? Is it just to f*ck with him? This feels like something out of a horror movie, but Death Note isn’t horror, not even this version.

So with the classroom completely trashed, and an apple eaten, our lead is convinced it’s a dream before encountering Ryuk again, he’s played by Willam Dafoe and is by far the most entertaining part of the movie. They keep Ryuk in shadows, largely to save money on effects I’d guess, which is a good thing in my opinion, unfortunately Ryuk has undergone some character changes I’m less fond of. Particularly how he actively encourages him to use the Death Note.

Ryuk shows him the stock bullies bullying another girl, encouraging him to try it out, it’s only a dream after all. Ryuk even hands him a pen, then tells him he can choose how the bully dies as well. Because our lead is a completely not-a-sociopath he chooses… decapitation? Really? They watch as things play out. A woman’s bag of groceries split, which leads to her knocking a guy’s basketball out onto the road, this causes a road accident that results in a ladder decapitating the bully. This was a totally unnecessary scene of gore courtesy of Netflix.

OK, let’s cut the bullsh*t. Our lead has a name, it’s Light Turner. And honestly, the moment I find that out, the movie loses me. I do not mind the move into Seattle, the themes of crime and punishment, vigilantism, the righteousness of killing and power corrupting are not themes exclusive to Japan, hell, in 2017 they’re more relevant than ever to America. That is not my problem, my problem is them tying themselves to the source material. Keeping the name Ryuk, I’m fine with but how many people in Seattle would you think would name their kid Light? If you want to update the themes to fit America, you need to go all the way with it, and it’s one of the biggest things holding this movie back for me.

So, Light in this version does not have a great relationship with his father. Like in the manga, he’s a cop, a cop who, in this version, didn’t see his mother’s killer brought to justice. The dialogue in the dinner scene between them is pretty awful. 

Light starts reading through the exceptionally long list of rules. Each page in the Death Note is in itself a Death Note and anyone can write a name in the Death Note but only a keeper can possess it for more than 7 days. This is the first of the new rules and it makes no sense! I’ll explain a bit more when it comes into play but for now, there’s a warning in the Death Note ‘Don’t trust Ryuk. He’s not your pet. He’s not you friend.”

Time for more bullsh*t horror as Ryuk eats an apple off-screen! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! And I know it’s your favourite part, time for more rules. A subject can be influenced for up to 2 days before his death. This is a subtle change from the original, in the original they had a lot longer but they couldn’t force them to do something against their nature. Here, it’s more or less full-on mind control. Also, each death must be physically possible.

Light asks whose Death Note this was, Ryuk never specifically states it belongs to a death god, only that the last owner died and he needed to find a new one. Also, we get a rule repeated from earlier about how Ryuk can pass the book to someone else, because Light is a bit dumb. Light decides to use the Death Note to the kill the man who murdered his mother. We see that he dies from a knife to the neck, and they did that so he could puke out blood before passing. This second completely unnecessary scene of gore is courtesy of Netflix.

So, news reaches Light’s father and he’s understandably cheery about the whole thing, time for more kinda atrocious dialogue, also there’s a weird dutch angle when they frame Light’s father, either that or he’s shorter on one side. So now Light has the incredible power of the Death Note, so he stupidly begins reading it in the middle of the gym crowded with people. He’s confronted by Mia, she’s like Misa except the exact opposite of Misa, for better and for worse.

She’s totally turned on at the fact Light saw the bully’s head explode. That is an immediate trigger warning! Back away, she’s clearly a psychopath! But the power of boners is stronger and he invites her into his world. They enter the biggest empty classroom I’ve ever seen in my life. She can’t see Ryuk since only the keeper can do that now. Wanting to prove himself, he opens his laptop and finds a convenient hostage situation taking place, the news are all over it, and I guess there’s a picture of the perpetrator for Light to use as he writes the name into the Death Note.

The perpetrator walks outside and because the Death Note has control of his mind now, he releases the hostage before being run over by a SWAT van for a jump scare. Light shows that he planned out that precisely, convincing Mia. Light says he plans to use the book on anyone who makes life miserable for others. Then we get this line.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"If anything, I think you're not crazy enough"

On a scale of 1 to Tommy Wisseau, how awful is that exchange? Mia wants to work together and become partners. They head to Light’s house for the most awkward kiss I’ve ever seen in my life. So with random sh*t happening in the background Light says the people need a god who wont let them down like police and politicians do. He will call him Kira and man this does become stupid. 

Apparently ‘Kira’ means Light in Celtic and Russian. This is never brought up again, despite some obvious cause to do so. He believes they’ll consider it the Japanese for Killer, so they’ll think the killer is Japanese. This ruse is almost entirely pointless.

Here’s where tying down to the source material is a major weakness of the story. In the manga, the name Kira comes from fans and media attention, Light adopts the name after it became a public nickname for him anyway. But they can’t do that here since they’re not in Japan, so they have Light come up with it himself, even though it could be traced back to him since Kira means Light in 2 different languages.

So, news reports that several Death Row inmates have been killed (pointlessly) and left messages in perfect Japanese saying that ‘Lord Kira has returned to punish the wicked’ right. Very subtle there, Light. We get a montage of news reports about various criminals deaths, and Light hacking the Seattle Police department which doesn’t for a minute answer how he has the faces of half the people he’s killed.

Apparently Kira’s actions have lead to a rush of criminals turning themselves in. Wait, what? He killed people on Death Row when they were in prison cells, what makes the criminals think they’d be any safer? And people are worshipping Kira.

So, we’re about a third of the way through the movie now, time for more gore. Not the actual impacts this time thankfully but instead a Tokyo nightclub full of bodies and blood. So, the usual Saturday night then. In the club we see… a character from Watchdogs. Wait, I recognise that weird way of walking and bent back, this is L?

Apparently, he’d been leaking names of various low-level criminals, waiting for a hit, this was his very gory hit. I’m not entirely sure what it accomplished but I’m sure it’ll be important as L is taken to a plan with his confident Watari, who sings to him. Sure, why not?

So, for no real reason, Light’s father, filmed with another dutch angle of course, tells Light about the Task Force to track down Kira, he was added last week. Light sees Kira as a good thing which more or less tells you that Light isn’t that smart in this version. Also, at this point the ruse is still active, they think he's Japanese, so why is there an anti-Kira Task Force in Seattle?

Light’s father, James, comes into work to find his room trashed by other officers. He gets a call from the FBI saying they want him to meet someone who’s a little unusual but has some theories and has helped them out before. Watari is sent to greet him and give him a chat with L, who has somehow worked out that Kira is in Seattle. So, that ruse is completely gone, kinda pointless really but let’s not dwell on that. So... Mia has discovered a website of people giving them potential targets, they are talking business in PUBLIC!

Anyway, Light is ill convinced, these could be faked by angry people. James is taken to L. He’d discovered Kira was in Seattle because of the death of the hostage taker. He wasn’t intoxicated in any way and the reports of the hostage situation were only played locally. OK, I’d like to point out that with the internet existing, that’s not exactly compelling evidence but more importantly if you already knew that what was the point in the whole leaking criminals thing? Oh, we just needed more blood and gore? Lovely

L makes a public statement, saying that all the criminals had identities publicly released to the media, which is I believe was a lie since Light had access to the police database. He insults Kira and says he’s coming for him, unless he’d like to kill him now. With his face covered and his name unknown, Light cannot kill him.

So, another scene between Light and his father, the scene is there to scream IRONY in your face. Light is being followed. Light does not want to kill the agents with the Death Note for moral reasons, besides it could lead it back to him. Mia wants to kill all of them and does so eventually. I know this supposed to be a big twist, but it’s obvious I’m just gonna spoil it now. They try and pin it on Ryuk but they at least kept Ryuk as a spectator, even if he neither confirms nor denies killing them.

And with that we get to GIGANTIC PLOTHOLE. Light threatens to write Ryuk’s name in the Death Note, Ryuk laughs, saying the most letters of his name anyone had gotten were two. There’s a slight problem. RYUK’S NAME IS WRITTEN IN THE DEATH NOTE! ‘Don’t trust Ryuk’ remember? There’s no rule to my knowledge that says the name can’t be part of a sentence.

James makes a public statement, the killing of the FBI agents shows Kira is not a friend of the public, and will kill anyone who stands in his way. Mia wants to kill him but Light stops her. OK, so by having Mia be a flipping moron and kill the FBI agents in a way that immediately people can tell is the work of Kira, they’ve turned public against them. Mia’s not that bright. 

And this is a problem, the biggest draw of Death Note is the battle of wits between Light and L, they’ve changed it up and that’s fine, but neither Light nor Mia are smart enough to play on the same level as L, even this version of L who is also dumbed down from the original source material.

Time for Light to have another stilted and awkward conversation with his father, thankfully they keep it brief. L immediately knows that Light is Kira and confronts him in a Diner, immediately letting Light know that he’s onto him. Light, in turn, immediately confirms L’s suspicions by not even being remotely subtle. L has the advantage in this game of wits, he knows Light is Kira and Light will do nothing in the entire movie to try and dissuade him of that theory.

Light returns home to find Mia trying to beg for his forgiveness, and because of the power of boners they get back together. Light has seen L’s face and now needs his name. So, he decides to control Watari but of course that would never work since Watari is obviously an alias… one moment...

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WORKS!? Also, we’re introduced to the stupidest new rule of the Death Note, you can burn a single page of the Death Note and if the person written in it isn’t already dead, they’d be spared. Light plans to use this to spare Watari for some reason. Light gets a call from Watari who tells them he doesn’t know L’s name, but does know his backstory. 

Erm, hi, dumb question, what the flying f*ck is this about? It was written in the Death Note that Watari becomes obsessed with finding the identity of the person known as L, which to me implies they assume he doesn’t already know it, so why is Watari making this call? It can’t be fraudulent because how would Watari know about his name being written in the Death Note otherwise?

Giving L some backstory is not a bad thing, it’s just the execution here is horrendous. L notices Watari’s disappearance pretty quickly and heads to the Turner household to confront Light, in front of everyone, so everyone thinks he’s crazy because he’s an idiot. But not so much of an idiot that he doesn’t have the police search the entire house, they come up empty, not finding the Death Note. More atrocious dialogue between the two follows.

So, L is having Light followed as Watari is called, he’s arrived at the place where L grew up and hopes to find his name there. Mia tells Light secretly that she has the Death Note, and we get an announcement of a Homecoming dance being tonight. Sorry, did I suddenly flip to a Spider-man movie?

Watari is in a stereotypical creepy derelict abandoned hospital/orphanage, why it’s abandoned I really don’t care, it’s 65 minutes into the movie now, I need to summarise more or I’ll be here all day. Ryuk is also there because of course he is. Watari finds a secret underground passage. Yes, this factors into L’s origin. L somehow kinda works out what’s going on and calls the New York Field Office.

Homecoming time, no flowers or anything, it’s just a setting for the climax, is it meant to be Halloween, since some of those photos seem very Halloween-esque. Anyway, the police arrive at wherever the hell Watari is as he begins sifting through files that of course are still there despite the entire place being abandoned. Top secret files are probably the first thing I’d take with me if I were moving, or that’d be taken if the operation were shut down. Mia has dance partner who Light puts the hat on to fool the incredibly dumb people following him so he can get to Mia’s locker and find the Death Note.

Watari calls but Light tells him time is running out. Light discovers that the page with Watari’s name on has been torn out and tells Watari to run, like that’s going to make a difference! Watari won’t because of the whole obsession thing. A policeman confronts him and for no reason at all opens fire and kills him. You know, I thought if you didn’t specify the means of death the victim died of a heart attack, or is that another rule that has been retconned out of this version. Because this convoluted mess could’ve been avoided if it were just a heart attack.

Light is angry about it and Ryuk is amused for some reason. Ryuk is sadistic in this version, not sure it’s a characteristic I like, but hearing Willam Dafoe pull it off is still fun. Back to the dance then. Light walks back to Mia in slow-mo and Mia reveals it was her who killed the FBI agents earlier and has been “saving Light from himself.” She believes that every time his back is against the wall, she has to do the hard work. Except by killing the FBI agents, you immediately drew more attention toward Light you stupid b*tch!

I don’t like Mia, I know I’m not supposed to at this point but I never liked Mia. Which is a problem since I’m supposed to be invested in their relationship, all I’m thinking is why she and Light are together at all, it’s been blatantly obvious the Death Note was the only reason she’s attracted to him in a sexual sense and she has been the driving force behind everything that’s gone wrong. I said fairly early on that it was clear that she’s a sociopath who enjoyed the killing aspect. So was I supposed to be surprised at this twist? If I was then EPIC FAIL!

It’s not that this scenario can’t work, but you need to get me invested in their relationship first, make her likeable but give her flaws that make her open to corruption faster than Light. Her unlike-ability has been relatively consistent through the movie, this isn’t a good twist!

She hid a bit of the Death Note in her calculus book and used a taser against an FBI agent, in a car park, somewhere relatively public that risked attracting a lot of attention. Because the Death Note has f*cking mind control now she gets the agent to write up all the names, but not the method of death so all of them should’ve been ‘dealer’s choice.’ Yes, I know she said he’d join them jumping off the roof but NONE OF THEIR NAMES WERE IN THE DEATH NOTE YET!

Mia has also written Light’s name in the Death Note, that’s why she couldn’t let him burn Watari’s page, to save his life, Light has to officially hand the Death Note to her. L finds out about Watari’s death and the dumbass policeman who shot him. In response he takes out a gun and begins driving a police car erratically. Light, having clearly somehow managed to lose the people watching him, finds the Death Note and rushes off with it whilst Detective Turner somehow knows what L’s doing and has the police chase after him and he wants Light in protective custody.

Light gets to work in the Death Note as the agents following Light realise they’ve been morons and start searching. The police arrive and Mia texts Light to say they’re coming after him. They have no more evidence than they did previously. Maybe he just disappeared to the bathroom, also Mia has proven to be a manipulative sociopath, why the f*ck would you believe her!? Light tells Mia to meet him at the Ferris Wheel as police storm the school. Light somehow manages to evade them but L is quickly on his tail, smashing through a ‘drive slow’ sign because Irony.

L is certainly a decent runner all things considered. Light runs through all the stock locations they could find. Warehouses, restaurants, apartments. L somehow manages to catch up with Light despite none of the previous bits of footage showing him gaining any ground and because Light is a p*ssy he surrenders and tries to explain some sh*t, also mentioning a hint for L later on. ‘Death can be handed from a f*cking Calculus book’ before Light can surrender fully though one of Kira’s supporters knocks him out. How he knows Light is Kira is anyone’s guess, maybe because of L?

So, we’re at  the Ferris Wheel and the police are all over them, Light forces the operator of the wheel, using L’s gun, to take them to the top. We’re supposed to believe Light has snapped but there is a twist coming that I really kinda like. Light sabotages the controls and then throws the gun out the window. He begs Mia to reconsider her current path but of course she refuses and he knew she would.

OK, apparently, he wrote that Mia would only die if she took the book. That’s not how the Death Note works! Ryuk begins wrecking havok on the Ferris wheel, I guess because we see him waving his arms and sh*t. The Ferris wheel begins to topple and Mia nearly falls out. Light pulls her in but soon they both fall out. The Death Note falls into Mia’s hand and she tears a page out as her hand slips and she falls. Light also falls but as she lands in flowers, he lands in the water, and so does the Death Note. Mia is dead and Light is in a coma. L arrives with the carnage over and sees the page Mia tore out burn, he also sees what was written in it.

With 4 new killings since Light went into a coma, the police begin to doubt L’s findings, he has enough allies to keep him out of jail, but they’re no longer partners. A random stranger hands Light back the Death Note as he lay comatose. Light awakens from his coma and hides the Death Note under his pillow.

James pays him a visit, somehow knowing he’s awake and despite everything that happened in the previous scenes with everyone turning against L, he now knows Light is Kira, having found the newspaper clipping of his wife’s killer stolen from his safe, again, this is hardly concrete proof. Of course, Light confesses everything to his father anyway. And now we get the bit that I like, Light orchestrated the Ferris Wheel collapse, and given the wording, it was never in doubt that Mia would take the book, he arranged for a criminal to save his life and take him to the hospital, medically inducing his coma whilst another criminal finds the Death Note and gives it back to him. There is still a bit where he somehow manipulated the page of the Death Note so it would land in fire, which is improbable if you ask me but it at least shows a hint of the manipulative skill Light had in the manga.

L is about to take off but he remembers what Light said earlier, finding out that Light doesn’t even take Calculus. L goes to Mia’s house, finding her Calculus book, and the piece of the Death Note with the names of all the FBI agents, he has a pen out and it seems he’s about to write something in the Death Note.

So that was the Netflix adaptation of Death Note, and it’s an interesting mess of a movie

Changing characters from the Manga is not the issue, they really should’ve just renamed the major players, maybe except for Ryuk. And I will say in some aspects it’s a slight improvement over the Japanese ones, the pacing whilst eractic is more tolerable than the breath-neck pacing of the Japanese movies and in going in its own direction, the story is at least somewhat unique and has its own identity. Ryuk is also a blast, despite some odd changes being made to his character, you could tell Willem Dafoe was enjoying every second on screen and the design was well done given the fact this was probably a low-budget production.

So, where did it go wrong? I hope I’ve given you a good idea during this lengthy review, but I have a few extra points. The draw of Death Note is a battle of wits, but none of their characters act smart enough. Speaking of character, aside from Mia, none of the characters are well defined. We know what drives Light, but giving some-one history is supposed to help someone understand why they are the way they are, here Light is… I have no f*cking clue, same with just about every other character. I don’t find this version of L interesting enough to warrant a backstory either. Maybe with a longer mini-series they could've fleshed things out a little more

I think a lot of the cinematography really works, except when it doesn’t but that isn’t often. It has a horror movie vibe with some genuinely creepy moments but the gore felt excessive and unnecessary for the story they’re trying to tell.

Some of the ideas here have potential but the way it’s executed here isn’t good enough and is incredibly disappointing to someone who is a fan of the source material.

Rating 80%